A nondescript man enters an empty, shabby office, flicks on the dreary lights and punches the button of his turn-of-the-century desktop computer. Nothing happens. Everything about this place reeks of drudgery; whatever the opposite of Jazz Age glamor is, this is it. But for our protagonist, there is an escape: flipping open a Rolodex while rebooting his computer, he discovers a paperback copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. He casually flips it open and, after a pause, begins to read aloud, flatly and awkwardly. If you're witnessing this, you know that the entire book—all 49,000 words—will be incanted during an eight-hour marathon performance. In these first moments, as our reader stumbles monotonously through chapter one, a slight panic might grip you—but don't worry. Like the process of cracking open any new book, the immersion happens gradually. Soon enough, perhaps without quite noticing it, you'll be in its thrall. more ›

Foreign correspondents have been on the endangered species list in recent years, but Lawrence Wright isn't going anywhere. He won a Pulitzer for his book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, and a film adaptation of his first one-man stage production, My Trip to Al Queda, premiered this month on HBO. Wright cannot be regarded as simply a hold-out of a rapidly declining breed, but rather as a champion of some sort of journalistic natural selection. They've trimmed down the ranks, but Wright is still here, and with good reason. more ›

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MUSIC: When we talked to Jonny Greenwood (pictured) back in October, Radiohead's In Rainbows wasn't the only focus. His composition titled Popcorn Superhet Receiver will be performed tonight by The Wordless Music Orchestra with Brad Lubman as conductor. When we asked Greenwood if he would be in attendance, he said "I’d love to but I can’t really justify the flight just to come to that. I’d feel a bit weird about it. If I was in America already for touring or something I’d love to go but I can’t really justify it. It’s a shame." Since you won't be using as many carbon emissions to get there, we suggest you go. more ›

FOOD: Trestle on Tenth, the “homey joins hearty” Swiss-inflected restaurant that takes its name from its proximity to the High Line and the avenue where it’s found, kicks off a special five-night series called “metzgete.” The Swiss tradition loosely translates to “butchers affair” and arises from the practice of salvaging every scrap of pig after the winter slaughter – “especially those parts that would or could not be dried, smoked or pickled for later consumption.” The $24 Trestle plate will include everything from braised belly to homemade bratwurst to liver and blood sausages. – John Del Signore more ›

THEATER: Over the summer the Belarusian Free Theater was arrested, along with their audience, during a performance of their play Being Harold Pinter, which uses Pinter’s magnificent Nobel Prize acceptance speech as a springboard for theatrical dissent, something the Belarus police state isn't really so into. (For that reason, the company’s performances are normally held secretly in alternating private apartments.) Unable to bring the entire production to New York for his Under the Radar festival, Artistic Director Mark Russell instead invited journalist/playwright Nikolai Khalezin (pictured) to present Generation Jeans, his solo show with DJ; it’s a semi-autobiographical account of a freedom fighter and the beginning of the “Jeans Revolution.” – John Del Signore more ›

THEATER: Under the Radar, arguably New York’s most exciting theater festival, begins today at The Public Theater and a few other odd locations like the Whitehall Ferry terminal. (There are also a few shows at the Classic Theatre of Harlem, P.S. 122 and The Kitchen.) One of the most buzzed about site-specific shows is Etiquette by the London company Rotozaza. It was a surprise hit at last year’s Edinburgh Festival; here the experience takes place at the East Village Ukrainian restaurant Veselka and involves only two actors: you and a friend (or stranger). It’s described as “a private theatrical experience for two people in a public space; the participants take a seat across from each other at a small table (the stage), put on headphones and follow a recorded script, complete with stage directions taking them through a half-hour play, in which they are both performers and audience.” And after the show, you can get pirogies with the cast! – John Del Signore more ›

ART: Art, fashion and blogs meet tonight at the Met. In an exhibition entitled blog.mode: addressing fashion, viewers will be able to comment on what they see. It's "the first in a series of shows designed to promote critical and creative dialogues about fashion. The exhibition presents some forty costumes and accessories dating from the eighteenth century to the present." Visitors are then encouraged to share their reactions online or from a "blogbar" of computer terminals in the exhibition galleries. Pictured is one of the dresses -- you know you have comment about it. more ›

THEATER: Eugene O’Neill’s early one-act plays get a rare blast of daylight in The Pioneer, a new production that stages four of his nascent gems plus a whimsical monologue O’Neill wrote from the point of view of his dog. The plays boast O’Neill’s signature assortment of furious, flailing characters that would come to dominate his full-length work. Writing for the Times, Rachel Saltz notes that the plays range from “interesting” to “wonderful” and concludes that... more ›

In The Brothers Size, three shirtless black men struggle for scraps of peace and prosperity under the blazing sun of some unnamed, dirt poor southern town. Ogun and Oshoosi Size are two recently reunited brothers – the older, more responsible Ogun has taken Oshoosi in after he’s released from prison. Oshoosi makes a halfhearted go at rehabilitation working at Ogun’s auto-body shop, at least until the appearance of his old jailbird buddy Elegba, who surfaces... more ›

EVENT: The NY Horror Film Festival kicks off with a party at Don Hill's tonight. Terrifying short films and some creepy classics are promised throughout the fest, as bands M-16, Kaos From Order and more set the sonic tone tonight. Free Wychwood Brewery beer from 8 to 9pm. More details here. more ›

EVENT: Together, the New York Book Club and the Gotham Center present "Resistance: A Radical History of the Lower East Side," with Michael Rosen, Al Orensanz, Jay Blotcher, and moderator Clayton Patterson. They'll tell you all about how the LES "experienced massive changes during the 1980s and 90s," including stories from the activists, writers, artists, and residents who lived it. More info here. more ›

TOMORROW!: (Due to expected rain, this event will take place tomorrow.) It's that time again...Shakespeare in the Park is back and kicking off its season tonight. Want to add some tragedy to your summer sunset this evening? Then head over to get tickets starting at 1pm today for Romeo and Juliet. more ›

MUSIC: You know summer is just around the corner when the Seaport Music Festival has their first show of the season. Tonight Animal Collective, Danielson and XXXChange (Spank Rock) will all be on Pier 17 for a FREE show! Come, drink, listen. more ›

The Summer of Love is back, and taking over New York for a 40th anniversary celebration spanning museums, theaters and screens. The NY Times takes a look at what to expect during this retrospective celebration: more ›

SCIENCE: The science series at this cafe includes an informal discussion "about some of the most pressing scientific questions of our day, led by Columbia University’s foremost scientists.” It also includes a free drink! This week's topic is Galactic Cannibalism: You Are What You Eat! more ›

When one thinks of King Lear, the image of a half-naked, feeble old man wailing away on a dark stage comes readily to mind. Shakespeare’s tragedy is typically performed as a bleak meditation on man’s helplessness in an inhospitable universe. So the current Public Theater production, starring Kevin Kline as Lear and Michael Cerveris as Kent, is something of a departure. From the haunting (but not heavy) Sondheim score to the colorful and inventive staging, this King Lear is almost defiantly buoyant. more ›

THEATER: A one-of-a-kind theatrical event is happening this weekend only in a clothing store and barbershop on the edge of Chinatown. Called American Standard, this solo, seven character ‘sideshow’ is the work of Canadian-American troupe bluemouth,inc., which has been building a reputation for staging innovative theater in bizarre locales. (Other productions have taken place in hotel rooms and the basement of an office building.) In their latest foray, “a preacher, a tourist, a politician, an entertainer, an immigrant, a poet and a terrorist inhabit a storefront installation, spilling onto the street and lurking within the basement.” Martin Denton praises the show as “dense, artful, absorbing, and fun. The penultimate scene is so thrillingly unexpected that to say anything about it risks spoiling American Standard's neatest surprise; suffice to say that you've almost certainly never witnessed anything like it in any theatre of any description.” more ›

I first saw Mike Daisey at The People's Improv Theater at a live recording of The Sound of Young America. I didn't know what he was going to talk about, but, in retrospect, it seems like he could talk about anything and it would still be interesting, funny, intelligent, and insightful. His latest monologue Invincible Summer will run at the The Public Theater January 18th through the 28th. more ›

Starting tonight, the Under the Radar Festival of new theater will be cleared for take-off. The three-year-old festival is produced by indie theater impresario Mark Russell, who, as Executive Artistic Director of P.S. 122 for over two decades, nurtured the venue into the alt-performance epicenter it is today. more ›

Broadway star Michael Cerveris (Hedwig, Sweeney Todd, 21 Jump Street) has joined the already exciting cast of King Lear, which opens next month. He’ll be squaring off in the role of Kent across from Kevin Kline’s hotly anticipated Lear. But according to Isaac Butler’s Parabasis, the production’s real star is “genius-level Shakespearean actor” Philip Goodwin in the role of the Fool. But that’s not all! The Public Theater is giving a young upstart named Stephen Sondheim his big break by enlisting him to compose the music. (Tickets go on sale at the Public Theater’s box office this Sunday.) more ›

Durango, Julia Cho’s subdued melodrama currently running at The Public Theater, casts a bland eye on the ever-deceptive American Dream, as experienced by one shattered Korean-American family. The story (which could also be subtitled Near-Death of a Salesman) begins with the firing of Boo-Seng Lee (James Saito), the family’s reticent patriarch, after twenty years of thankless service as a non-descript mid-level bean-counter. more ›

THEATER: Emergence-See! is a new one-man show in previews at the Public Theater. Conceived and performed by Daniel Beaty, the work imagines what would happen in present-day New York if, say, a slave ship were to rise out of the Hudson River in front of the Statue of Liberty. Beaty portrays 40 New York characters and uses slam poetry and song to examine the toll that centuries of slavery have taken on the human psyche. - John Del Signore more ›

THEATER: Stephen Belber, whose Tape was made into a riveting film by Richard Linkater, unveils his latest opus, A Small, Melodramatic Story at The Public Theater. Previews start tonight so there are no reviews yet, but the synopsis is intriguing: “In Washington, D.C., a widow struggles to figure out whether life is worth re-engaging with. In her path are the 1968 riots, the first Gulf War, the Freedom of Information Act, and herself. There's also an archivist named Keith, a cop named Perry, and a kid named Cleo. And finally there's the question of just how much about anything do we really need to know." more ›